He told them that Follieri duped him out of $110,000 left to him by his parents. He say the Italian businessman claimed he needed the money to pay nuns.

Hodge met Follieri in 2005, when he was looking into church properties in Atlantic City, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday. The two became close and took three trips to Rome together. Hodge said Follieri bilked him out of $120,000 for plane tickets and other bogus expenses.

Barbera was joined Friday by a host of supportive family members and friends. Some spoke on his behalf, including Formica's Bakery owner Harry Formica and Barbera's pastor, Monsignor William Hodge.

This was just recently submitted to savestmarys:

Apparently it's starting in Cleveland: the diocese there won't announcing the closings until March 2009 but apparently their local paper is already releasing results and digging. The Diocese just sent out a press release hinting at a scathing article about to come:

http://dioceseofcleveland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=721:for-the-record-an-important-message-to-the-people-of-the-diocese-plain-dealer-cluster-story-is-unfair-and-irresponsible&catid=1:latest&Itemid=385

Meanwhile their former CFO has just been convicted of steering over $17 million of business to an associate for kickbacks:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/07/jury_to_announce_verdict_in_di.html

There they call the closures "Vibrant Parish Life" campaign.

The lies! We in the Diocese of Camden are hardly alone in our struggles to keep the faith and save our houses of God. Corruption at high levels is, unfortunately, far-reaching. The devil himself is having a field day in our Church, and we must pray hard and work hard to expose his workings. This is why praying for priests is so important! Wherever there are those doing the work of God, the devil will try to attack those souls and drag them down.

Always remember, when given a rationale for any action taken by the diocese, accept nothing at face value! "Vibrancy" is a ridiculous, meaningless, empty, corporate term that is being used to cover countless wrongs.

By M, a friend of St Mary's
Updated 7/21/08 3:00pm. Email tips to: follieri@savestmarys.net

July 15th's New York Post breaks with A Deal with the Devil, detailing Camden Bishop Joseph Galante's working relationship with Italian con artist and playboy Raffaello Follieri, jailed two weeks ago on federal fraud and money-laundering charges (PDF) in a complicated scheme to use investor money to buy up Catholic churches at below market value then "flip them" for profit. The Bishop sold Follieri his $400,000 beach house in January 2007 (it was back on sale recently) even as news of the scheme was unraveling and even as the Bishop was working on the plan to close and sell off half of the churches in his diocese.

A Business Model Built on Bilking the Church

Follieri arrived in New York in 2003 and presented himself as a brash, young well-connected real estate developer. What he quickly developed was a reputation for high living. As the National Catholic Reporter wrote in 2006:

The business opportunity exploited by the Follieri Group is evident: A cash-hungry, land-rich institution (the American church) experiencing a demographic shift among its clientele (parishioners abandoning the inner city) and huge and ongoing liabilities (more than $1 billion has already been paid victims of clergy sex abuse) needs to divest itself of long-held but increasingly unproductive holdings (inner-city parishes and other excess real estate holdings). It's a big business.

The NCR profile showed that Follieri Group lavished a lot of time and money on the 2006 meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, providing a "hospitality suite" for the bishops and lobbying them on real estate sales. At the meeting the bishops changed the rules on Vatican oversight on large sales of church property. A important player in the Conference was its former spokesperson, Bishop Joseph Galante.

Follieri spent the next few years using exaggerated ties to the Vatican to build a real estate scam that used money from Californian billionaire Ron Burkle (friend of Bill Clinton and assorted nineteen year old NYU students) to buy up church property below market value, then flip them for profit. They figured that the crushing debts following the sexual abuse scandal would have created a country full of desperate bishops (Trenton politicians squashed independent prosecutorial investigations into the sex abuse scandal in New Jersey so we'll never learn the details that have become public in places like Boston). Most diocese turned away the Follieri Group; few churches were sold and none seem to have been resold for profit. Most of the Burkle money went to feed Follieri's jet-setting penthouse lifestyle complete with Hollywood pretty girl Anne Hathaway.

But it was not to last. Investor Ron Burkle had wised up according to FBI records he flew a representative to New York in January 2007 to examine Follieri's "engineering reports." The Italian was out of the office and claimed to have the only copies with him. When pressed, Follieri warned Birkle's man that he "should see what happened to the last guy that crossed Follieri." Around February 13 Birkle directly confronted Follieri's $20,000 expense of a private jet between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and turned off the money.

Buying a "Unique Relationship with the Catholic Church"

Follieri went looking for a new business model. From the FBI indictment:

By or about early 2007, Follieri took additional steps to look for new investors. Among other things, Follieri directed the production of a pitch book based on the false representations that Follieri had connections witht he Vatican and the ability to obtain church properties cheaply. The pitch book for Follieri Media, which Follieri had distributed to several potential investors, state, among other things, that Follieri Media had a "unique relationship with the Catholic Church."

Starting February 28, 2007 Follieri began liquidating Birkle money he had stashed in Monaco, "transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars from two other accounts at a private bank in Monaco to a bank account in New York, New York, for the Follieri Group." (FBI).

His new plan to build a "unique relationship with the Catholic Church" proceeded remarkably quickly. Within three weeks of the money transfer he was named a "special consultant" to the New York-based Pontifical Missions Society, headed by Monsignor John E Kozar, a priest appointed in 2001 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Eight days later, on Wednesday March 28, Kozar and Follieri announce a joint financial venture, an affinity credit card arranged through Clinton/Burkle friend Howard Kessler (A former Follieri Capital VP now works for Kessler).

The day after announcing this joint financial partnership, Follieri settled on the $400,000 sale of a nondescript condo in a South Jersey beach town that had been sitting idle on the market for over six months. It was a far cry from Follieri's usual San Tropez/New York Penthouse and an unusual choice for an international playboy. The seller had recently launched phase two of a plan that would eventually call for the sale of over sixty church properties to real estate developers. Bishop Joseph Galante had bought the house a decade earlier for $114,000, a remarkably healthy annual return of 32%. Two nearby properties that Zillow.com identifies as "Comparable Homes" have since sold for $165,000 and $208,900.
 
Our Usher in the Vatican

Galante says the suggestion to first use then-26 year old Raffaello Follieri came from a 2004 phone call from a high Vatican office but now can't seem to remember just who it was who called. The FBI says Follieri's only real Vatican connection was a low level employee. Italian papers name him as Tonino Mainiero, an "usher" or "lay clerk" at what the Post identifies as a "small church within the Vatitcan." Follieri had hired the nephew of a powerful Vatican figure for his vice president but there is no indication that he had any special connection to his uncle or involvement with the Follieri Group and he seemed to have been used mostly to get a well-known Vatican name on the letterhead.

Previous negotiations between Follieri and the Diocese to buy property in Atlantic City had fallen through, but sometime around the sale of the condo, Bishop Galante loaned Follieri a priest.  Diocesan spokesperson Andrew Walton has admitted the diocese was aware that Atlantic City Monsignor William Hodge spent a considerable amount of time traveling to investor meetings with Follieri, but that press reports about him being directly employed by Follieri are not true. If Walton's denial is to be believed, then the only salary Hodge received during his time working for Follieri was coming from diocesan offices in Camden.

The FBI reports that Galante's loaner priest was actively involved in the scam. They have sworn testimony that Follieri kept clerical robes of "a more senior clergyman" in his New York office and that Hodge and Monsignor John E. Kozar used them to impersonate Vatican officials to would-be investors. New reports say that around this time Kozar's charity began passing millions of dollars  to a under-documented real estate holding company and no one seems to know where the money's gone. Hodge left the country "on vacation" the same week Follieri was arrested by federal authorities in New York and has phoned in a denial that he dressed in bishop's clothes.

"Nobody Was Aware"

Bishop Galante says he didn't know Follieri was a con artist when he sold him the beach house at such a good profit. His spokesman Andrew Walton claims that "nobody was aware of problems with Mr. Follieri or his company at that time". Yet in 2005 a potential investor in a Follieri scheme to siphon charity money for an Ecuadoran orphanage asked around and was advised to "stay away, that's not good. I don't think it's a real foundation." A year later the National Catholic Reporter article came out and quoted a financial officer of a religious order as saying "this thing smells in my opinion. I wouldn't get close to these people." In 2006, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette opined that Follieri "has had an easier time maneuvering around Manhattan society than in acquiring and developing Catholic church property" and outlined his shady billionaire backers, expensive life style and glitzy Hollywood girlfriend. It gets better: a Follieri Group vice president, listed prominently on their website, was Vincent Ponte, son of convicted waste-management mobster Angelo Ponte. Vincent's own resume included a 1997 bribery conviction, easily discovered via Google. A full two years before Galante accepted Follieri's $400,000 check, even a blogger could connect enough dots to warn the Boston diocese to keep the Follieri Group "at arm's length."

Even if there had been no signs of a brewing scandal it was a clear conflict of interest for Galante to sell personal property to this group at the same time he was organizing a mass sell-off of churches.

We're not the first to recognize that many of the churches slated for closure are both financially solvent and sitting on prime real estate. Spokesperson Andrew Walton disingenuously claims that "parishes own their own properties and any sale would benefit them, not the diocese" without explaining that when a parish is closed its trustee body ceases to exist: proceeds of the sale go to the newly created mega-parish entity, three of whose five trustees will have been recently hand-picked by the bishop.

What this means to the movement?

Vati-Con, or The Great Church Sell Off, has been occurring in diocese after diocese all across the country and the script is remarkably consistent. Bishop comes in, makes showy listening tour, commissions committee to make future plan, then calls in the TV stations to express shock and dismay at the depth of the proposed cuts before throwing his hands up and bowing to the process, as if this is all another victory for democracy.

The consistency of the process (and the invariable ending) is a clear clue that this The Sell Off is being coordinated at a higher level. Raffaello Follieri almost certainly acted as public relations consultant to the bishops, and other networks formal and informal are probably at work. It is commendable that U.S. bishops are working together to address national issues facing the Catholic Church, and it would be fine to hire an outside real estate developer for consultation. But it becomes conspiracy when the network and the motives and money are hidden behind church walls and tax records.

It is conspiracy when Camden and dozens of other Dioceses produce showy process for a known end: closure and sell-off of churches. It is conspiracy when employees of the Diocese of Camden dress up as high church officials and jet around the world with a real estate developer on diocesan time. It is conspiracy when the bishop quietly sells his personal beach condo to a known con artist who will be a likely bidder on the sixty-some properties about to go up for sale.

Those behind the Sell Offs have relied on the lack of coordination of local efforts to save the churches. Google around and you'll see that every diocese hit by this has spawned blogs and websites determined to save the churches. We've been divided by lack of communication but also by the loyalty and trust that church-goers properly extend to their pastors and bishops, a trust which has been used to deflect tough questions and honest answers.

We've now found that at least one U.S. bishop is in bed with Raffaello Follieri and has profited from at least one six-figure personal business transaction. Where else will this money trail lead?

You can email confidential tips to follieri@savestmarys.net.

Bishop Galante, be advised: If you should choose to keep up this unholy battle to close the shrine parish of St. Mary's Malaga, you will have a tremendous uphill battle ahead of you. We will fight you all the way to Rome if that's what it takes. The pressure will not cease, it will only increase. We will use canon law and civil law to protect what is holy and True.

Warning: Plainspoken Julie below. Feel free to add you two cents about this evening!

Tonight, Bishop Joseph Galante visited our little church. It was packed to overflowing and people picketed out in the street. It was an impressive turnout, to say the least. Interestingly, Bishop Galante brought a whole cavalcade of people along with him, including Roberta Small and "Sister" Marilyn vollmer, commonly known around the diocesan offices and beyond as "the other bishop." (He brought her along with him from Texas when he came to NJ.) You'd never know she was a "religious." He also brought along Fr. Carmen Carlone, pastor of St. Joe's in Hammonton.

As an aside, I joined St. Joe's awhile ago even though I never, ever attend (except once a year for the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, and that's about all I can stand). I joined hoping that I might be able to request "as a parishioner," that they offer Eucharistic adoration there. While I'm no longer a member there (and was in name only--the "liturgies" there were that appalling), when I attended the "welcome to the parish" event "Father" Carmen sported a salmon pink tank top, capris, and leather thong sandals. He's a real character. I have never seen him in a collar, actually, until tonight. He must've had that suit specially dusted off and pressed for the occasion. He looked good. But I digress.

The bishop and Msgr. Joyce, the slick moderator with the shiny shoes, gave us "one hour and ten minutes," with 2 minutes per person, to say our piece. Lots of incredible things were said, I couldn't even hope to repeat them all here. There was so much courage and conviction in the room, and lots of applause for points well-made. If the bishop got nothing else from our meeting, he must know this: that we are not, I repeat NOT going to give up until we obtain victory not just for St. Mary's, but for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament who must be so outraged and offended by the actions of this bishop.

Friends of St. Mary's, let the Blessed Sacrament be at the very center of our struggle. So many tonight spoke to the bishop about their love of the Blessed Sacrament. Several children spoke about their experiences at Eucharistic adoration, and one girl who looked to be about ten said that she'd gone to adoration at 3AM this past night for the sake of our church, and walked off in tears. One little boy of about eight told the bishop he wanted to be a priest at St. Mary's! One man, who does not drive, takes the bus all the way from Margate to attend St.Mary's and to go to adoration there. How inspiring. And he wasn't the only one. Person after person stood up and said how far they go to get to St. Mary's and how they pass this church and that one because what St. Mary's has is truly special. And yet to the bishop, the level of commitment and love for the Lord that exists at St. Mary's is simply not "vibrant" enough.

I myself witnessed to the bishop of the heresy preached on the website of the parish of St. John the Evangelist, the millionaire South Florida church he holds up as the model he believes South Jersey churches should become. At St. John the Evangelist, they believe that the bread and wine remain after the consecration as the Lutherans do and as the Council of Trent condemned. That's called consubstantiation. It's heresy. He just sat there smugly and shook his head at me. But I spoke the truth, and he knows it. The truth cannot and must not be hidden!

One wonderful woman spoke with such conviction about the fact that clearly, this whole thing must be about money, and that we must withhold our money from the diocese if they won't listen to us. They're our churches, we've paid for them, and they want to take them away from us anyway. I completely agree with her--I will not give a dime until St. Mary's is safe.

The bishop admitted that the "community church" model of megachurch that attracts many people--you know, that lukewarm, happy clappy, superficial religion--should be what we model our future churches on. Boy does he have it all wrong. He thinks Catholics are going over to the evangelicals because they want to be entertained. He's wrong. They are seeking out truth and not hypocrisy. I question whether they find it there in those sorts of churches, of course, but I understand what they're looking for. Bishop Galante expressed that he thinks "young people" want a paid youth minister and all sorts of services and "ministries"--all the "ministry" money can buy. He's wrong. The bishop couldn't be more wrong. Youth want the Truth, pure and simple. They want to be real Catholics, not sugar-coated, watered-down ones. And if they can't be that or do not know how to be that, they're going to leave. More of the same old crap that they've been feeding us over the past 40 years isn't going to make the situation better, it's going to make it worse. Non-practicing Catholics (including a sibling of mine) are completely disgusted by this whole situation. Closing the churches that are their last remaining physical connections to the Catholic faith will only distance them further.

When Bishop Galante had the opportunity to speak at the end (and some of the points he made I've mentioned above), he was extremely unconvincing. It was really just the same stuff he's been saying for months, so no surprises there. However, he may have been surprised by our allergic reaction to his remarks and the continual interjections from the peanut gallery (myself included, I was very hot under the collar). His rationale is completely nonsensical and we all saw through it tonight. It was wonderful that he impressed, convinced, or persuaded no one. We were truly united as a community, a thing Galante supposedly seeks to encourage--by tearing down our churches and building up artificial communities. He came in knowing he had his own plans and that he would not truly listen to us. The whole thing was for show, really, just to pretend he actually cares, just like the "speak up sessions." None of us fell for it.

In a nutshell, Bishop Galante is still claiming there will be a priest shortage, that Catholics are not attending mass, that churches need to be open seven days a week, "vibrant" liturgies need to happen everywhere (whatever the hell that means--I guess holy, Catholic liturgies are less important), that we need to have peppier music, and that outreach is centrally important. Of course, all of us sitting in the pews, in answer to every point he made about how the churches need to change, said, "we ARE doing that." St. Mary's is open all the time. It is "vibrant" liturgically, it does do outreach (but in a personal rather than a "slick" sort of way), and does have authentic, Catholic music.

The bishop also stood up and shamefully lied about several things, such as the financial motivation. He said that the assets of a parish, once merged, remain within the new entity. He failed to mentioned all the money grabbing that would occur after the "merge" (closure) and his power to control said assets. He failed to address several questions posed by the parishioners, including one very important one posed by Leah Vassallo, which was, basically, "What could St. Mary's do to demonstrate its 'vibrancy' to you, Bishop? Do you even think it's possible for a small church community of about 250 families, such as ours, to be vibrant?" After the bishop finished speaking (after having been interrupted numerous times by the faithful in the pews), Leah demanded he answer her question, and he completely ignored her. But in a way, I think he did answer her question. He talked about nothing but numbers and "big" churches, paid ministries, and bringing in masses of people. (Of course, when you close all these churches the megachurches will have to be large and bustling--they'll be the only places left to go! May God spare us that abomination!) While he conceded that even large churches could fail to be vibrant, the definite implication was that this was an exception. Big=vibrant to the bishop.

Bishop Galante was also confronted about his use of the name "Wawa" to refer to our little churches. Wonderfully, the speaker, our cameraman and a self-identified "Catholic in name only" and "doubting Thomas," said that Wawa was so successful because "there's one on every corner" and you can easily find them! Also, you always know you can get good food there and good service. Haha! What a wonderful point. Perhaps we should claim the term "Wawa church." As in, "My church is a Wawa church! You can find St. Mary's always open on the corner of 40 & 47!"

Finally I ought to mention that Bishop Galante stated that he could have come to this diocese and had an easy last few years before retirement, to which all of us applauded and said, "Why don't you?!" He was not happy with this remark and several times over admonished us to act as Christians. Last time I checked, it's our job as Christians to stand up and tell the truth. "Nicey-nice" ain't synonymous with Christian. But again, I digress. Anyway, the bishop said his "conscience wouldn't allow him" to keep things as they are, the "status quo" as he calls it.

As the days go on, Friends of St. Mary's, I am increasingly convicted. I know that we are doing the right thing, that God is on our side, and that we are doing His will. And the more unsavory information I learn of the bishop and his past, the more I realize that something unholy is afoot. We must continue to pray for the bishop, for nothing is impossible with God, and for the priests of our diocese. And let us keep working to save A Light in the Diocese: St. Mary's!

(PS: My four-year-old son Theo would like to add, "St. Mary's is a special church." He typed that himself.)





Friends of St. Mary's Malaga: Please email me, call me, comment here, or send letters detailing your experiences of this evening and opinion of the bishop's scheme. Feel free to comment below.